Category: Blog

Pool progress – May visit

Monday 6th – day of arrival

Apparently the hole is not big enough

Tuesday 7th

Total washout due to rain storm. Massive rain storm in the morning. Draining water from the hole and battling with drains in the afternoon.

Wednesday 8th

Hole enlarged and laying of the base started

Thursday 9th

Reinforcement in preparation for delivery of concrete next week

Friday 10th

Now waiting for concrete delivery by mixer on Wednesday 15th

Power to the workers

Monday 13th

Michele has posted road closure signs in preparation for Wednesday concrete delivery.

Wednesday 15th

Arrival and setup
The pour
Clean up and departure
Michele’s time lapse video

Click here to watch

The builders broke the garden gate and the blacksmith came to fix it
Concrete set by Sunday

Monday 20th

Tuesday 21st

Wednesday 22nd

Thursday 23rd

Friday 24th

Walls filled with concrete
Followed by a barbeque

Meat fest including massive Fiorentina steaks, wine and home made limoncello

Opening wine builder style

Click here to watch

a final meeting with Michele, Gino and Alex

Michele was a bit pissed

Exciting day

Ground broken for the swimming pool. Michele started today and the old pool has already been removed by lunchtime. Very exciting!

Also, they came to paint the boxing that covers all the heat pump piping at the back of the house.

Ground floor terracotta floors

The tiles on the ground floor were left in a terrible state after the renovation. We tried cleaning with a mild acid product, but without much improvement. We asked Michele if he could help and he told us we needed a specialist floor cleaner.

We cleared as much from the ground floor as we could before leaving in February. Michele and one of his guys moved the heavier furniture.

Michele sent us this video of the state of play with one more protective coat to apply. Looking so much better.

February visit

During this two week visit, we caught up with friends, pruned the wisteria and painted our external doors to match the new shutters. We had contacted Giovanni Tambellini for advice about painting the doors and he kindly ordered what we needed from his paint supplier.

Slightly surprisingly, the undercoat was an oil based gloss and the top coat was water based. We struggled with the wood filler he bought us so the garage and stable doors just got sanded and painted.

Everything got one or two coats of the undercoat. In the garage, we removed the broken window and painted the shabby shutter and window bars to match the stable.

Then all the doors got two topcoats of the of the water based paint. We’re very happy with the results.

Photovoltaics stalled

I chased Stefano about the progress with gaining Enel approval for the connection of the photovoltaics, but got no reply. We had been told they would be connected by the end of the year, but we’ve heard nothing.

Chasing up with Gino has revealed that the application has not been made yet which is infuriating. I had to sign and return a mandate and the application was finally made today. Apparently up to two months. Not holding my breath as Christmans holidays intervene.

Window bars installed

The work of the fabbro looks good. The new kitchen window has bars to match the existing one and the low windows in the living room have bars to prevent idiots from falling out. Still waiting for the security gate for the kitchen door.